Even when it’s over, it’s not

When today’s WOD was done, I was relieved.  I survived another round of this crazy sh*t.  But when I got back to my store I soon realized that even though all the physical work is done, there’s so much more that can follow…  It starts with the ravenousness that thankfully I was able to tame with a chunk of sweet potato and a meatloaf “muffin” that I had packed as “in case of hunger emergency” snacks. Also had steak and Brussels sprouts for lunch, but it was too early for that!  Then I’d starve all afternoon if I ate that!  Sometimes I’m hungry all day long. I hate those days :p

All day I thought about the workout at random intervals.  Sometimes to pat myself on the back for toughing it out when I wanted to cry or just run away :p  sometimes to think about areas which I need to put some work into improving (“open your HIPS Kate!” Continues to follow me around…)  Sometimes to appreciate just how hard my body had worked, such as when it came time to climb the stairs to the lunchroom. But the train of thought I found kinda interesting was the one that reflected on how I deal with challenging sh*t on a mental level.  I keep telling myself “you got this.  You won’t let this workout beat you.”  And when it gets really tough, like rounds 4-6 of power cleans today, I block out the other people around me.  Nt sure this is the best option, but when I’m fighting my hardest to make it through, I “hide”.  No eye contact doesn’t let anyone but me see the struggle.  See how hard I’m fighting…

Everyone has their own methods, mine I think I’m still figuring out.

don’t judge a book by its cover

Am I just being the difficult one?  When I find something I’m excited about, should I just keep it to myself to not annoy others?  I feel like those in glass houses should not throw rocks…  I think talking about something you are passionate about in blog form is not something anyone should feel guilty about… Rambling goes on through the use of my blog to prevent boring my friends to death in person.  I’m passionate about health and fitness.  That’s just who I am.

I guess a little explanation might be helpful here.  I received a few comments yesterday that I found really difficult to swallow.  Comments about how “crossfitters look down on any other type of fitness and think they are better than the rest of the world.”  Wow, what a heavy stereotype.  I don’t consider myself to have any of those feelings…  I’m just loving the new challenge I’ve found and appreciating the crossfit “family” I have been so warmly welcomed into at CF Division.  One of the other comments that stuck with me a bit was “people who crossfit talk about crossfit… over, and over, and over…. Maybe you should look for new friends who are interested.”  Another harsh assumption.  Again, one of the reasons I blog.  Yesterday felt a little like coming out of the closet all over again…  Or trying to explain myself when I first adopted the Paleo life and others thought my choice to take care of my own health was a form of judgement on them.  I now have three strikes against me it seems.  Gay – check.  Paleo – check.  Crossfit – check.  Yesterday was a hard day.

Today is a new day.  Enough of that garbage.  Yesterday’s WOD was – for time:

– 50 pull-ups (got to 35 with the band, then switched to ring pull-ups)

– run 400m

– 21 Power Snatch (loaded on the training wheels again… 35lb bar w/5lb plates)

– run 800m

– 21 Power Snatch

– run 400m

– 50 pull-ups (rings)

Translation – Whole lot of SUCK, with intermittent running breaks.  Kipping pull-ups are on my list of things to accomplish.  Not that I think they are easier, but they are fun to watch someone do!  Haha.  Although I was kicking myself at the time, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t provide myself the option to escape cause when I got to the FIRST run portion, I just wanted to run AWAY!  After completing Fran two days prior, my hands were still pretty sore, and the 50 pull-ups (even the scaled down version) were not fun.  I talked myself out of running away though and finished the WOD in 20:55.  After all, my new car was there and my keys were inside the box.  :p

first benchmark – done!

Yup.  I get it now.  Yesterday I was introduced to Fran for the first time.  Never a good sign when you confess to the fact that it’s a first and the rest of the people at the box get all excited.  “I love seeing someone meet Fran for the first time!!” was one response, and “OH… you’re going to have funnnn!” had to be my fav.  It was… uh… ya.  I’m searching to come up with a way that conveys my feelings appropriately.  I’m getting really used to the same suggestions I always have yelled my way “be aggresive Kate!”  “POP your hips to get the weight up!” &   “Stop trying to use your ARMS!” are becomming a daily ritual.  My head understands, my body says… “meh, not feeling ya”.  I don’t want to be an excuse maker, but after tearing my hip flexor on the left side years ago, I’m stiff as hell and just don’t react as quickly as my mind would like to think I do.  Once I got rolling though, my arms started to fatigue and my lower body had no choice but to do it’s share.  Fran consists of rounds of 21, 15 & 9 reps, for time:

– thrusters 55lbs (Rx was 65!  I was only a little 5lb plate per side away! :D)

– pull-ups (using the green band for assistance)

I completed all 3 rounds in 6:44 and managed to not cry.  Barely.  I was awfully close though when it came to the third round of pull-ups, trust me :p  In the end I felt AWESOME 🙂  My first benchmark workout, done!  And I didn’t die.

This morning I packed my lunch and made myself a green shake for the road.  Not that I expect wonderful things from my salad in a cup, but I know it’s super healthy and doesn’t taste bad.  However, when you get a message from a friend with a picture of their amazing looking breakfast of sweet potato, fried egg and a little piece of steak… suddenly my green drink seems rather disappointing.

My cup of tea

Last night I whacked my elbow in the change room before the WOD. Hurt a bit, but more of a pain was the fact my hand went kinda numb.  Not overly comforting when heaving a bar overhead… Crappy pic, but I had this odd looking bump thing…  My fish’s name is Dr. Tom.  He was taking a look.  (Please ignore my organized chaos in the background, k?)

Today’s workout was awesome 🙂  Redeemed myself after the double-unders sh*t show yesterday.  I really need to get my sh*t together on this one.   When the alternative to 50 double unders is 150 regular jump rope, seems enough incentive to learn…  like now. I got home all pumped up and ready to spew a crapload of blog ramblings, but was in desperate need of a shower first.

A few years ago my chick and I got into the habit of going to the Toronto zoo fairly regularly.  Great opportunity to hang out and take pictures together of all the animals 🙂  That’s not where I’m going with this…  ever been to the zoo?  Doesn’t even have to be the Toronto zoo, I’m sure they’re really all the same…  Well, this morning when I got home from the box, the smell that seemed to be following me around reminded me of the gorilla enclosure at the zoo.  It was pretty horrible, but what can I say??  I worked really hard…

Anyways, back to the workout details.  Today we warmed up with 500m row, 15 toes-to-bar and 50 candlestick crunches.  Google it.  Crazy sh*t.  Then the WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP of:

– 400m run

– 15 deadlifts (85lbs)

I killed it!  Finished 7 rounds and felt awesome from start to finish.  I love to run, so while a bunch of the others were whining about how every piece of todays WOD sucked, I was in my element for once.  Cool down was another 1000m row and I left for home with a huge smile on my face 😀

weekend re-cap

What a great weekend 🙂  I crammed a ton into my two days, as always, but had a good time doing it.

Saturday I got up bright and early (as always) and went to the local farmer’s market where I picked up some fresh veggies, took some random pics and people watched to my heart’s content.  I have a co-worker who likes to travel to Montreal from time to time and raves about the bagels you can get there.  When I saw a booth in the market building that claimed to carry authentic Montreal bagels, I sent him a pic as a joke.  I didn’t even consider at the time that not the whole world is up at 7 am on a Saturday…  Oops!

I just wanted to beat the crowds…

Also needed something to keep my mind occupied so I would stop wondering what workout was in store for the day.  Weekends are TBA.  I had that confirmed for me by Sunday.  Saturday’s WOD at 10am was ok.  Didn’t have the “That was AWESOME!!” feeling I usually have I don’t think though.  It was an OTM style workout, but every 2 minutes instead of every 1.  3 – wallballs, 5 – power cleans, 7 – burpees.  My power cleans felt GREAT, but otherwise it was ok.  Saturday evening hung out with a friend and went to the driving range / bating cage.  I sucked :p.  At both.  But with equal level of sucky-ness right handed and left.  At least I’m consistent.

Sunday was back at the box for another 10am WOD.  This time I can definitely say…. That was AWESOME!  Started with 20 consecutive back squats.  That was not the awesome part.  That was just hard.  :p  Then we were paired up to complete:

15 rounds “Cindy”

– 3 pull-ups, 6 push-ups, 9 squats

50 front squats

15 more rounds “Cindy

– 3 pull-ups, 6 push-ups, 9 squats

It was wicked fun and hard at the same time, but the team challenges I swear my mind just shuts out any doubt or possibility of wimping out.  Sh*t yo!  Breaking things down, I completed 45 pull-ups, 90 push-ups & 135 air squats.  PLUS 25 front squats, and the initial 20 back squats.  No wonder I was completely exhausted after this one.  And hungry enough to eat everything in my fridge…

happy friday!!

Today, I redeemed myself 🙂  Went to a 7:30 WOD and all I can say, now that it’s all done and over with… That, was AWESOME!!!  😀  Man was I ever thankful that it had nothing to do with the rope though.  My hands and leg are still sore and healing from yesterday.

For today, we crammed a LOT into the hour!  Started with 8 rounds OTM, 4 reps back squats @ 75-80% of our 1 rep max.  I don’t have record of what my 1 rep max is yet (like, for anything), so I picked something that I felt would be challenging – 75lbs.  I thought to myself, I maybe could have handled 85lbs, but when it came to the last round and the ante was upped to “max reps”, 75lbs was good!  Then we got to play with box jumps 🙂  seated max height box jumps.  A new love!  I nailed a few reps the 24″ box height, with 2x 10lb plates stacked on top.  Didn’t have a measuring tape in my purse, so I’m not sure exactly how high that was.  (aside – if you don’t know me, the thought of me with a purse would leave anyone who does rolling on the floor laughing)  I do know that one more roll of the box, to the 30″ height, was the breaking point for my mind…  I hate when it quits on me before I’ve even tried…  I got over it, cause next we got in to our actual WOD – 10 rounds AMRAP:

30 sec – box jumps (20″)

30 sec – kettle bell swings (35lb)

30 sec – rest

Total reps – 255

Holy crap!  Intense!  But awesome 😀  And I didn’t even lose count.  That in itself can be harder than the workout itself…  Don’t judge me :p

One thing I really appreciate about crossfit (among a million others) is I’m really learning to not shy away from things that seem hard or daunting either physically, or even mentally.  When I couldn’t get my head on track with the 30″ box, I didn’t give up… the 24″ w/2 plates was really not that much smaller, but it was a way of working around the barriers I had faced and succeeding anyway.  Small victories can be just as important as big ones… 😀

I’m feeling “bloggy” today, so I’ll toss a Paleo note in here as well.  Two days ago I decided to make this fun sounding recipe from Pinterest.  “Spaghetti squash crusted Quiche”.  Sounds good, right?  I should premise this a little… I’m a smart kid, but man do I have dumb moments at times!  Thankfully, I manage to keep most of my not-so-smart thoughts in my head…  Anyways, Quiche.  So I pressed the cooked spaghetti squash into the pie plate, filled the “crust” with some mushroom, onion, broccoli, and bacon, then poured in the egg whites and popped the whole thing in the oven.  After about 30 minutes (I think), the Quiche was set and my apartment smelled yummy.  The dumb moment – I cut the first piece and thought to myself “hey!  where did my crust go?!?”  Hey genius…  there was nothing in there to hold the crust together, so the squash essentially just made the whole thing kinda mushy.  Long story, but I don’t recommend this bad boy.  Skip the squash all together…  The little muffin tray egg cups I usually make are more flavorful anyway.

all roped up

Welcome to the box!  My new favourite place for release…

I’ve learned, laughed, sweat, nearly cried & pushed myself farther than ever before.  Most days I LOVE it, well… at least once the WOD is over.  Today, I found the first workout I’ve come across that I’m not sure I like.  Not sure how to explain it.  I don’t back down from a challenge.  Don’t shy away from sore muscles, or bruises, even the ones I can’t explain where they came from, but today I met the rope climb.  The mechanics behind it are perfect.  It combines a series of full body movements to produce results, with a heavy focus on lower body strength.  Typically my forte… but even with the high ski socks the trainer offered me when she noticed I hadn’t brought my own, the rope burn on my legs and hands sucks!  :p  Now I find myself standing at work with my palms pressed against the cool showcase glass to ease the burn, and getting strange looks from customers wondering what the heck I’m doing.  haha  I headed into the box today with my usual nervousness at something I haven’t done before, although I have to say it does seem to get improving each time.  Part of me was excited to work on my rope climb though.  The part of me that was frustrated and angry to succeed at every other challenge we faced at the Spartan Race, only to fail on the rope climb.  Today was to be my revenge on the rope.  :p but it won again…  I may be down, but I’m not out just yet…

Let me play out today’s WOD briefly:

AMRAP in 12 minutes

– rope climb

– 15 hand-release push ups

I got through 6 rounds and an extra rope climb, although I only climbed up almost to the top 4 rounds and used the scaling version twice of lying on the floor and using arms to pull up to standing position, then back down to the start position.  Holy balls.  This WOD sounded not that bad when I read it online.  It wasn’t that bad for the first 3-4 minutes.  Then I wanted to die.  Both the rope and the push ups are SO taxing on your arms that flowing from one to the next was super tough!  I’ve found a lot of the AMRAP workouts we’ve done I’ve been able to find one of the moves that was my strongest and a oportunity for a working rest period.  Not today!

Then we did a Tabata set, which is 8 rounds, 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest of bench press.  35lb bar 10lb plate/side.  The first set I thought, I’ve got this.  It didn’t last :p  But I made it all the way through anyway 😉

practice makes, well… better

First off…  crossfit makes me hungry.  That’s the only explanation I came come up with as to why I’ve had moments of wanting to eat everything in sight lately.  I don’t like it.  Although… after a good hard butt-kicking, I have no desire to hunt down some Paleo friendly “treats”, but more the urge to whip up a whole dozen eggs or something…

Today I came to the conclusion that I really need to stop stressing about the upcoming WODs.  All weekend, I worried over walking into the box completely unaware of what to expect.  Then last night, when I checked the WOD for this morning, I suddenly wished it had been another “tba” kinda thing.  Wrong.  Today’s WOD had me scared sh*tless since last night.  BUT… once I got going, it was awesome 😀  Wait, let me rephrase… once I got going I realized I wasn’t going to die.  Once I was done it was awesome.  Today’s WOD started out with a nice little 3-3-3-3-3 front squats with a little peer pressure to stack some more weight on the bar.  For today, I ignored it and kept focusing on my form.  Not like I was squatting a broom stick… I had the 35lb bar with 2x10lb plates on each side.  That was just the warm-up!

Don’t take that ^ as cocky… I just can’t believe what is considered warm-up here sometimes…  Then the real work began.  Today’s WOD – 3 rounds, for time:

– 30 power snatch

– 30 sit-ups

– 30 ring push-ups

shhhhhhh*t!  I thought I was going to die a few times.  I finished the whole sh’bang in 17:03 though 🙂  I’ll take it!  At Dave’s suggestion, I only used the 35lbs for the snatch, but next time I’ll get to the RX weight of 55lbs I hope.  And note – my fav. move was back in all its glory.  90 power snatches.  You know what though?  Once I got rolling, I think I actually had a bit of a break through with the damn things 🙂  My first set of 30 I felt 10-15 really solid ones.  My second set of 30 I think I nailed 13-17.  Then my third set, LOTS felt awesome.  I think at that point, my whole body had somewhat resigned to the fact that it might as well just play along or the bar was going to land on my head.  Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the push-ups eff’n sucked.  A lot.  :p  Fine with me.  I can bitch about push-ups without giggling uncontrollably as is the case with the snatch.  “Hey (insert coaches name), will you help me work on my snatch??”  (hehehehehe….)

Ok, I’m done now.  🙂

long weekend rant

Happy long weekend Monday Canada 🙂  Not really even sure what this one is for, but my store is closed so it’s all good.  First day off in years… ok I’m exaggerating.  Felt that way.  My only sad moment today was remembering that the box was closed.  I got over it though.  Worked on my box jumps on the wall outside my building and got in a bunch of hockey-stick-snatches without breaking anything.  Also got to the driving range for the first time in forever.  With Sunday ball hockey being done for the season, it’s great to find another place to whack the sh*t out of something.  I didn’t suck as bad as I had expected either!  😮 Was happy to see I can still hit the ball pretty well right-handed as well as my usual left.  Only hooked it really bad once… thankfully the fence stopped it from smacking the girl a few tees down from me…  After that I think I stuck with my own clubs.

Back to work tomorrow.  Goodie.  It’s going to be another long week too since I am still short-staffed, but I have a bunch of interviews lined up so hopefully that won’t be for too much longer.  Sad part though, I had to bail out of the provincials tournament next weekend for ball hockey.  With my assistant on vacation, I just can’t be away from my store for the whole weekend.  Boo-urns.

Oh!  Let’s go a bit further with that topic, shall we?  Yes, I work in retail.  I’m a retail manager actually.  BUT just because I work in a store doesn’t mean I work in every store.  This happens to me all the time!  Today, I was wandering through Shoppers Drug and got asked by a lady where the tampons were.  Really?!?  I was in a tank top and Birks??  (and let’s be serious – the shoppers uniform is really not attractive, so if my regular clothes are being mistaken for that I really need to access my wardrobe…)  Do retail workers let off some sort of vibe?  Or is it a smell??  God, I hope not.  Years ago, I was working as a manager in the Sport Chek in the mall in Waterloo.  I went into the grocery store on my lunch break and ended up showing a little old lady where the eggs were.  In parting, I left her with “by the way… I don’t work here ;)”  She laughed and carried on her way…

Sunday mass

I googled it to make sure I wasn’t committing some religious injustice with my subject of this one.  Mass – Verb: Assemble or cause to assemble into a mass or as one body.  That works.

Ok, so I’m going to clarify my interpretation (as everyone will have their own) of yesterday’s TBA (totally-bad-ass) WOD.  Give me a minute first though…

My head still hurts from running with that weight plate yesterday.  Carrying the thing on your shoulders to save your arms for the snatches and wall balls seems like a great idea right?  Except that with pretty much every step the plate smacked me in the back of the head.  :p  I was going to ask for help with my snatch… but that felt awkward… so I practiced about 100 of them at home with a hockey stick!  Haha thank god I live alone!

So, I’ve only been doing the crossfitting thing for a few weeks now.  The first few weren’t even attending the real WOD’s, so pretty much every workout I see posted on the website scares the shit out of me at least a little.  Today’s WOD I checked before heading in…  TBA.  Again.  :-s  Then I get to the box and there’s a line of tires placed outside.  We’re not talking little road bike tires… BIG, dirty, water-filled truck tires.  😮 Long story short, hard work, but probably the most fun you can have, without taking your clothes off…  Learned something too 🙂  I like rowing.  I think I was flying along at it…  till I fell off the seat.  Fail.  Haha, thankfully it was a team WOD and one of my guys just sorta threw me back on.  :p

Today’s WOD (yes, another TBA, but when I say totally-bad-ass it’s with the biggest possible smile on my face)

team of 4, for time:

– 175 burpees

– 400m tire flip

– 175 hand-release push-ups

– 1750m row

*our time: 29:26 🙂  I think that’s good…